I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us
develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished
Civilization® Revolution™ last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the
Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to
take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project
Civilization® Network™ and the full game will be available next year on
Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends
to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest
civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your
technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form
your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to
maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your
friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything
you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you
like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.

We’ll offer a closed beta of the game soon, so stay tuned for details on how you
can sign-up to participate. The full game will launch in 2010. For more
information about Civilization Network, including development updates and
behind-the-scenes posts from me and the Firaxis team, join our Facebook fanpage
here.